Why are my eyebrows falling out? Explore on the causes of eyebrows hair loss and not growing back, for male and female, home remedies and treatments.

Eyebrows Falling out Meaning

Eyebrow falling out

Also known as superciliary madarosis, this is usually the abnormal eyebrows and eyelash hair loss which can be partial or total. Considering the cause, eyebrow hair loss can be weird since besides the hair breaking and falling out easily, some people may end up with a part, half, inner, outer third or one on or both eyebrow missing.

This problem can affect one or both eyebrows with partial or complete hair loss. Causes may range from infections, chronic skin disorders, hormone disturbances, autoimmune diseases and medications.

In some cases, identification and treatment of the underlying condition may help in regrowth of the eyebrows. Permanent eyebrow loss can occur with disorders that permanently damage the hair follicles.

Eyebrow hair growth cycle

It is normal for eyebrows falling out after they have completed their growth cycle or phases that is, the anlagen (growth phase), catagen (resting phase when an eyebrow stops growing) and telogen (shedding phase). This natural process do not make your eyebrows to thin at all. In many cases, the process is not easily noticed when changes take place.

If you are concerned on how many eyebrow hair fall off naturally in a day, it is not easy to determine since this does not occur daily.

Who can be affected by eyebrows falling out?

As we all know hair loss on the scalp is a genetic process that is common in men. However, eyelashes and eyebrows falling out can affect anyone including women and even children regardless of age. It will only depend on the causes behind your loss of eyebrows.

Why are my Eyebrows Falling out and not Growing Back?

There are cases where you may lose your eyebrows hair and it fails to regrow completely. It is important not to wait until they are completely lost before you think about how you can save the situation.

Here are the reasons for that:

Anaesthesia and surgery your eyebrow

Stress caused by anaesthesia and surgical process around your eyebrow can cause hair loss on your eyebrows, and this condition will occur in a duration of three months.

Over-Plucking

Tweezing is a common safe method you can use to trim your eyebrows, and the results last longer than shaving. However, you should not over do on this. Over-plucking eyebrows is the most common cause of eyebrow hair loss that will not regrow.

Before you carry out this process on your eyebrows, consider this, as it can take up to six weeks to regrow one eyebrow hair, and if you make a mistake you have to put up with more serious cases that make you regret. Some of the possible dangers of over-plucking your eyebrows falling out and not growing include:

Ingrown hairs – this will occur when your eyebrow hair breaks off underneath your skin during tweezing. In this case, the skin grows over the pore and traps the hair, which results in a red bump hence the hair may not grow again.

Infections – when you tweeze your hair you may leave your pores open and this makes them prone to bacterial infections. Clean your tweezers with alcohol before plucking to prevent transferring bacteria as this may as well lead to the problem of eyebrow not growing again.

Follicle damage – plucking can damage the follicle underneath the hair. The hair follicles are responsible for hair growth, so when you damage them it means permanent eyebrow hair loss.

Eyebrows Falling Out Causes

Causes of eyebrow falling out

Your eyebrows may thin due to numerous reasons. This may range from medical conditions to environmental and even injuries. If you think that your eyebrows are thinning because of one these, please see your skin doctor who may give the best advice on treatment.

Pregnancy and childbirth

During pregnancy, women don’t shed much body hair and it usually looks shiny, healthy and thicker. However, immediately after childbirth, some women may lose their hair including the eyebrows. This is due to the changes in oestrogen level and this is often temporary.

Excess stress

When you are over-stressed for long times, it can trigger hair loss, including on your eyebrow. This is resulted from hormonal changes that occur when someone is psychologically affected. However, this is also temporary.

Medication side effects

Medications such as blood thinners, vitamin A supplements, some arthritis medications, antidepressants, and gout medications, medications for certain heart problems, blood pressure medications, and birth control pills can lead to eyebrows falling off. Your doctor may advise on alternative medications that do not cause hair loss.

Skin growths

Skin growths such as moles, warts, hemangiomas, sebaceous hyperplasia, and seborrhea keratosis on eyebrows may make growing hair unable to penetrate through them. If removed carefully, eyebrow regrowth is possible. In case of scarring, it can make it impossible for hair to grow again.

Nutrient Deficiency

Deficiencies in some nutrients that negatively affect the hair on your scalp can also lead to sparse eyebrows. In addition to a balanced diet you need the following to grow strong hair:

Iron and zinc which help the hair follicles to grow. It is found in lean meat

vitamin B12 – deficiency in it causes weak or brittle hair shafts

protein which is needed for cell growth and repair

Eyebrow over-plucking

Eyebrow tweezing is the most popular way of shaping eyebrows among most women. Compared to eyebrow shaving, it lasts longer, up to six weeks before the one eyebrow hair you tweezed regrows back.

However, excessive eyebrow plucking can result to permanent hair loss on your eyebrows in cases where your follicle is damaged. Furthermore it can make your eyebrows vulnerable to infection.

Chemotherapy

Some cancer chemotherapy drugs cause temporary eyebrows loss of hair, or may affects all body hair. Along with the loss of scalp hair, people undergoing chemotherapy also can undergo eyebrows falling out and eyelashes. Hair loss may begin two to three weeks after the start of chemotherapy. Lost eyebrow hair regrows in the weeks to months following completion of treatment.

Hypothyroidism

Also known as an underactive thyroid gland, usually affects scalp and body hair growth. Thinning of the eyebrows can be a late sign of hypothyroidism. Other symptoms include chronic fatigue, weakness, constipation, weight gain and skin dryness. Treatment of hypothyroidism with thyroid hormone replacement medication may result to regrowth of lost eyebrow hair.

Atopic Dermatitis

It is a form of eczema that causes red, itchy patches on the skin. When the skin around the eyes is involved, it can lead to swelling, skin inflammation and eyebrows falling out, as researchers have found out. Skin-irritating cosmetics and soaps can aggravate atopic dermatitis. The eyebrows usually regrow when the condition becomes inactive.

Alopecia Areata

This is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles, causing inflammation and temporary hair loss. Any hair-bearing skin site can be affected by this condition, including the eyebrows. Treatment involves corticosteroid injections into the site. Eyebrow hairs usually grow back, but may be a different colour or texture than the lost hairs.

Hansen’s disease

Also known as leprosy, is an infection of the skin and nerves caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. The disease affects the skin of the eyebrow region, leading to loss of sensation and permanent loss of the eyebrow hairs.

Aging

As people grow old, hair generally gets thinner and drier and hair loss become more common. The problem may affect the eyebrows too. To prevent your eyebrows from showing signs of aging, consider the following:

don’t apply too much heat to your eyebrows

use eyebrow makeup

avoid stress

make sure your skin is hydrated well enough

Other causes of eyebrows falling out

Apart from the above causes, there are other possible cause of eyebrow loss and thinning. The common ones include the following:

Fungal infection– usually make your eyebrow skin scaly and make hair around it to fall off especially in patches. Treatment involve the use of antifungal medication both oral and topical.

Syphilis– At its second stage, it can cause patchy hair loss as one of its symptoms.

Lice – Itchiness due to having lice on your eyebrows or eyelashes can push you to scratch your brows resulting to hair loss.

Vitiligo – may cause some hair loss on affected areas although not common

Lupus Erythematous

Trauma

Infiltrating skin cancer

Eyebrows Falling Out Stress

Stress not good for your eyebrows

Your eyebrow hairs can fall out due to a number of reasons, including persistent plucking, aggressive application of eyebrow pencils and normal aging process. A person who is stressed out also may be more prone to losing eyebrow hair. Another hair loss condition known as alopecia areata occurs when the immune system randomly damages the hair root and causes hair loss in the eyebrow, eyelashes, scalp and elsewhere.

Eyebrows falling out from stress

As discussed above, it is possible for one to lose eyebrow hairs due to much stress. This is a temporary hair loss often known as tolegn effluvium. This happens when some stress causes hair roots to be pushed prematurely into the resting state. This condition can be acute or chronic.

Effective stress management should be considered when you realize stress is causing your hair loss on your eyebrows besides the use of anti-depressants, calcium channel blockers, NSAIDS, retinoids, beta-blockers that can help in dealing with hair loss in general.

What to know on stress and eyebrows falling out

According to research findings, dermatologists believe ongoing stress, low mood and abrupt bursts of anxiety can slowly affect the normal hair growth and result in chronic telogen effluvium.

It is unclear exactly how stress impacts hair follicles, but it is suspected they are attacked by a network of nerve cells that send opposing signals to the follicles.

Repeated stroking can result in patchy hair loss. Since eyebrow hairs tend to grow slowly, it can take some time for new hairs to appear.

How stress causes hair loss

Hormones

When a person is under much stress, it may upset the regular balance of hormones in the body. Since hormones play an important role in the production of hair, an overall lack of energy due to excessive stress may interfere with hormone levels.

Treatment

Rogaine: The treatment for telogen effluvium varies, depending on what triggered the condition. Dermatologists may prescribe Rogaine, a topical solution that stimulates hair growth.

Corticosteroids

These creams are severally used to treat mild cases of alopecia areata. In severe cases, corticosteroid solutions may be injected directly into the area where hair has been lost.

Sensitizing chemicals: application of contact sensitizing chemicals to the skin may also help. They work by prompting an allergic response that can encourage hair growth.

Anthralin: this is a synthetic tarlike substance that is sometimes used to treat alopecia areata and promote hair growth. It is applied for up to 1 hour and rinsed off.

Eyebrows Falling Out Home Remedy

If you are well able, you can go for eyebrow implants, or expensive medication, some of which might not work as effectively as promise. For me, I may advise on many natural eyebrow treatment ways and if it does not work, go to the other one. Most of them are based on the principle they help hair growth generally.

Natural remedies to grow eyebrows

Eyebrow growth home remedies

While at the comfort of your house, there are a number of natural ways you can try to help stop further eyebrows falling out and regrow them. These remedies include:

Coconut Oil

Olive Oil

Castor Oil

Onion juice

Egg Yolk

Aloe Vera

Let us look at each one of them and see how they can offer a fast solution to your problem of hair loss on your eyebrows.

Castor, coconut and olive oil – Before going to bed, cover your eyebrows with castor, olive or coconut oil. All these oils are well known to help in eyebrow hair growth and they will be a good natural way to grow eyebrows. You may as well message your eyebrow using this oils, and that will be ok but you should not be so vigorous. Evening primrose oily has also been found to be very effective stopping eyebrow hair loss.

Onion Juice – you may also solve this problem by squeezing the onion juice on your eyebrows. This has been very helpful to aid in growth of new eyebrows. Do not worry about how you are going to move around as you smell onions on your face. This is for your better good.

Stop Eyebrow Plucking – the use of eyebrow makeup and eyebrow plucking could the cause you are losing your eyebrows. If this is the case, stop eyebrows plucking and give them a chance to grow. You should also reduce vigorous use of eyebrow makeup especially eyebrow pencil.

Initially, as you wait for your eyebrows to grow, you can use makeup correctly to help hide the fact that you do not have eyebrows or you have very few. Corrective use of eye pencils and eyebrow thin can be of great help as well.

Eyebrow Hair Loss Treatment

Eyebrows keep sweat from our forehead from running over our eyes. In addition, they can be groomed to enhance the aesthetics of the face. If you are ever concerned in your own looks, or simply wish to maintain eyebrow growth for the sake of capturing sweat, you can employ certain methods to keep eyebrow hair from falling out.

Eyebrow transplant

For those who have few eyebrow hairs and want more, you can go for an eyebrow transplant surgery also known as eyebrow replacement. This is often good for people who have lost eyebrows from genetics, trauma, and scars and over plucking.

This surgical process is ideal in replacing eyebrows or even touching up on areas where you do not have eyebrows. However, those with alopecia areata and a few other conditions or those likely to have keloids may not be good candidates for eyebrow transplant. The surgeon will advise you if your case can be dealt with through eyebrow grafting or transplant.

Eyebrow tattooing is an ideal lost or sparse eyebrows treatment for those who have lost eyebrows through over-plucking, genetics, trauma, scars and many more. Note that, not everyone can go for eyebrow transplant. You can discuss your suitability with your cosmetic surgeon.

Steps involved in general treatment

Step 1

Apply a moisturizing cream to your eyebrow areas before going to bed. This can help prevent your skin from becoming too dry especially during winter season. It will also help the already damaged skin. You can also apply a natural moisturizing cream that can stimulate hair growth such as Folligen Cream, which is available at all health food stores.

Step 2

You can change your diet to stop your eyebrows falling. Keep off sugary foods which can raise your blood sugar and cause hair loss. Alternatively, you can eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, with some protein rich foods to strengthen your hair.

Seek dermatological advice and have them assess your condition. A dermatologist can determine the cause of eyebrows falling out through a few blood tests and microscopic examinations of your hair follicles. Some treatments performed in the dermatology clinic for eyebrow hair loss include cortisone shots and mesotherapy.

Eyebrows hair loss treatment

Besides treating the underlying problem, there are no FDA approved eyebrow loss treatments available. While looking at each of the possible causes, this problem on eyebrows falling out can be managed.

However, eyebrows loss treatment does not have many options except for eyebrow transplants. Here are some of the ways to treat this condition:

People suffering from brow loss caused by alopecia areata can opt for the corticosteroids injections on areas they are experiencing loss of eyebrows. This stimulate eyebrows to grow back but they might be of different colours or texture.

If you are suffering from atopic dermatitis, avoid skin products that can irritate your skin if you have a sensitive skin. Your dermatologist will help you in deciding which skin products and soaps will be good for your skin.

Try using some of the eyebrow enhancing cosmetics, which may help improve the appearance of your eyebrows. You can as well use eyebrow stimulating products, which have been found to help people who are suffering from particularly alopecia areata.

Hormone therapy is usually recommended to those who suffer from hypothyroidism.

Try eyebrow growth serums as well as eyebrow growth conditioners as they can help renew growth of your eyebrows.

If above methods of treating eyebrows do not work, and you are really looking bad without eyebrows, consider going for eyebrow transplants. This medical surgical procedure will involve using micro grafts in filling any of the already missing eyebrows or full eyebrow reconstruction.

Eyebrow Falling Out Male

Plucked eyebrows

There is a normal scalp hair loss which is common in men, and may result from genetic inheritance. Apart from that, men will as well experience eyelashes and eyebrows falling. It all depends on the reason behind your loss of eyebrows. The reasons involved in eyebrow thinning in women and children are the same causes of eyebrow hair loss in male counterparts.

Male eyebrow thinning and loss

Eyebrows falling out causes in men are same as the ones for any person. However, all the causes apart from reasons related pregnancy, menopause related hormonal changes, eyebrow over-plucking, and eyebrow makeup use can be a cause. These four causes affect women more than men or males.